Assassin Bugs 



Illinois and New Jersey and even to Long Island and Rhode 

 Island. It is popularly known as the "wheel bug" and some- 

 times by the negroes as the " devil's riding horse " and is referred 

 to in the older books as Reduvius novenarius and Prionotus or 

 Prionidus cristatus. 



The eggs of the wheel bug look like miniature leather bottles 

 standing on end and in hexagonal clusters, seventy or more in a 

 group, and attached to the bark of trees, on fence rails, or where- 

 ever the female chances to be. In this stage the insect passes 

 the winter. In the late spring the cap of the bottle is pushed off 

 and the young bug emerges. The young insect has a blood-red 



Fig. 185. Emesa longipes. (After Lugger.) 



abdomen and its thorax is marked with black. In walking it 

 frequently elevates the abdomen, curving it over forwards. It feeds 

 upon soft-bodied insects, its attacks, while young, being confined 

 mainly to such weak, delicate species as plant-lice. As they 

 grow larger they attack larger insects and when full-grown 

 destroy large caterpillars. They seem to inject a poison into the 

 wound made by the beak and Glover tells of a bite on his thumb 

 which was severely poisoned and gave him great trouble. After 

 four molts the peculiar crest on the thorax appears which has 

 given this insect its specific scientific name cristatus (crested) 

 and its popular name "wheel bug." This is a semicircular 

 longitudinal crest bearing nine teeth, prongs or cogs like a 

 cog-wheel. 



The full grown bug is sordid black in color. It captures its 

 prey not by agility but by stealth. Its coloration is protective 

 and it slowly crawls up to some caterpillar or other insect, ad- 



295 



